WASHINGTON, D.C.: President Barack Obama said that disenchantment over the Copenhagen climate talks was “justified” but defended the chaotic outcome as the top UN envoy urged an end to post-summit recriminations. The climate change conference held in the Danish capital ended last week with a nonbinding agreement that the European Union has blasted as a Sino-US stitch-up which will do little to curtail global warming. Read the rest of this entry »

A collision that sank the wooden-hulled Catalyn B at the mouth of Manila Bay on Thursday, leaving at least four dead and dozens missing, was the latest in a long list of shipping accidents across the Philippines. Millions of Filipinos, many of them too poor to afford air travel, use the seas and waterways to travel between islands in this impoverished Southeast Asian archipelago, on everything from massive steel-hulled ferries to wooden dugouts with outriggers. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Agriculture fears the loss of up to P40 billion worth of palay or paddy rice and up to P16.4 billion worth of corn next year due to the El Niño phenomenon. Read the rest of this entry »

The summit failed to deliver a way to halt dangerous climate change

About 45,000 travelled to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen – the vast majority convinced of the need for a new global agreement on climate change. Read the rest of this entry »

Public satisfaction with Vice President Noli de Castro’s performance went down, but his rating is still the highest among the top government officials, a recent survey showed. Results of the survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed that 58 percent satisfied and 26 percent dissatisfied with the performance of de Castro. Read the rest of this entry »

THE 30th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)—which follows this month—provides a great opportunity to reflect about the world’s situation of women’s rights. In spite of progress in the promotion of gender equality, discriminations on the basis of gender are still pervasive in all societies. And, surprisingly, even in the Philippines which has been governed by two women presidents. Read the rest of this entry »

PROMETHEUS BOUND

The climate negotiation in the Fifteenth Conference of Parties (COP 15) in Copenhagen has come to a sour end. The world’s high expectation for a meaningful and binding agreement is doused with icy cold water by a nonbinding deal dubbed as “Copenhagen Accord”—a deal primarily brokered by the most powerful and leading polluter country in the world—the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is preparing a new Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan, the government’s economic blueprint, with measures on climate change adaptation high in the agenda. Read the rest of this entry »

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Health (DOH) announced that the reported number of new HIV infections by the end of 2009 will increase by more than 100 percent compared to 2007.  Read the rest of this entry »

BUFFETED by a global economy in recession, Philippine exports retreated to their lowest ebb of two-digit below zero growth in the first nine-straight months of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »